In the sink-or-swim world of academia, a great graduate advising can be a lifesaver. But with university budgets shrinking and free time evaporating, advisors often need a mentor themselves to learn how to best support their advisees. Bruce M. Shore, an award-winning advisor with more than forty years of advising experience, is just the coach that graduate advisors need. With The Graduate Advisor Handbook: A Student-Centered Approach, Shore demystifies the advisor-student relationship, providing tips and practical advice that will help both students and advisors thrive.

One of the first books to approach advising from the advisor’s point of view, the handbook highlights the importance of a partnership in which both parties need to be invested. Shore emphasizes the interpersonal relationships at the heart of advising and reveals how advisors can draw on their own strengths to create a rewarding rapport.

The Graduate Advisor Handbook moves chronologically through the advising process, from the first knock on the door to the last reference letter. Along the way it covers transparent communication, effective motivation, and cooperative troubleshooting. Its clear-eyed approach also tackles touchy subjects, including what to do when personal boundaries are crossed and how to deliver difficult news. Sample scripts help advisors find the right words for even the toughest situations.

With resources dwindling and student and advising loads increasing, graduate advisors need all the resources they can find to give their students the help they need. The Graduate Advisor Handbook has the cool-headed advice and comprehensive coverage that advisors need to make the advising relationship not just effective but also enjoyable.

Patrick S. Osmer, vice provost for graduate studies and dean of the Graduate School, The Ohio State University

“This is an extremely useful and readable guidebook for anyone in graduate education. Shore clearly understands that advising is the signature feature of a graduate student’s degree experience, and he makes a persuasive case against the proverbial sink-or-swim approach that many faculty may have themselves experienced. Instead, Shore shows that there is much to gain if faculty, students, and universities adopt what he calls a ’student-centered’ approach to advising.”

G. Dennis O'Brien, former president, University of Rochester

“Bruce M. Shore’s valuable and timely The Graduate Advisor’s Handbook concludes with a paragraph entitled ‘Do It Right.’ Indeed. Too many advisors—and faculty—still adhere to the sink-or-swim philosophy of graduate study. Shore’s detailed recommendations carefully balance the talents, needs, and status of graduate students with the skills, assistance, and authority of graduate faculty. Why be attentive to the rubrics of advising? Shore makes it crystal clear. ‘Graduate education is about students emerging as colleagues.’ Ill-considered advising cheats students and damages our disciplines. ‘Do it right.’”

Victor A. Bloomfield, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“Most faculty want to do well by their students, and most of them do, but nearly all find some situations awkward, think less than they should about their students as people with full, complex lives, or find it difficult to strike the right balance in their advising relationships. Shore’s experience as both an advisor and an administrator allows him to speak from experience and write with insight about how to better handle the various situations in which graduate advisors and their students may find themselves.”

Lorraine Lopez, Vanderbilt University

“This is a terrifically helpful guide that is thoughtful and comprehensive, while being concise and readable. I feel confident I will be a better graduate advisor for having read it.”

Times Higher Education

"Good graduate student advising is both an art and a science. But what books there are on good advising tend to focus on the science: how to tackle the dissertation, part by part, or how to help a student secure funding. So what about those more nuanced, personal aspects of advising, such as how to help a student through a major life transition? Or what to say when he discloses something private, such as the fact that he has a learning disability? . . . Shore, professor emeritus of educational psychology at McGill University, wrote The Graduate Advisor Handbook: A Student-Centered Approach to pass on what he learned over more than 40 years as a professor and to fill a perceived gap in the literature."

For more information, or to order this book, please visit https://www.press.uchicago.edu